I believe that the resistance of the law library community to continuing
price increases of more than 20% per year--and cancellation of
subscriptions--finally brought about a change in policy at M.Bender.
Bender's products are still very expensive, but at least they are not
getting more expensive every year. I think we must also resist this kind
of price increase from Little-Brown. If possible, cancel your
subscription to Scott on Trusts. If not possible, let your rep or
Customer Service hear from you. If you are told that this 100% increase
is due to "increased production costs" suggest that it is time to find a
new way of producing the product. Certainly it needn't be a hard bound
volume, when it will be repleaced in one year.
A few years ago when legal publishers were being bought up by Thompson, I
read an article (Publisher's Weekly, I think) which said that legal
materials were perceived as underpriced relative to what the market would
bear. I think we are now seeing the fruits of that perception in price
increases like this. For those of us in govt/court libraries, this
comes at a time of financial crisis, and these price increases simply
cannot be borne.
Joe Stephens
Oregon Supreme Court Library
Salem, Oregon
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